e missionaries who
evangelized the west and north-west. The children of Asisi and Loyola,
whose names are immortalized in the pages of Bancroft, all set forth on
their perilous wanderings under instructions issued from the venerable
college whose ruins are still seen beneath the shadow of Cape Diamond.
In the list of priests who resided at Quebec on the 1st October, 1674,
is found the name of Jacques Marquette. Little did that modest man then
dream of the glory which was soon to be attached to his labors and
explorations. By the discovery of the Mississippi not only did he add a
vast territory to the realms of his King, but he opened an immense field
to the zeal of his Bishop, and extended the boundaries of the diocese of
Quebec by thousands upon thousands of miles. Thus it happens that
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Louisville, and
all our Western cities, though they did not then exist, now occupy
ground which was under the jurisdiction of the great Bishop, Francois
Laval de Montmorenci, who was first raised to the See of Quebec two
hundred years ago. It is no stretch of fancy, but the literal truth--and
the picture is a grand one--that when Laval stood on the steps of his
high altar, in that venerable fane which has since been raised to the
rank of a basilica, he could wave his crozier over a whole continent,
from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the
Red River of the North to the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Time has passed
since then, and religion has progressed in such astonishing rates that
sixty-two dioceses are at present said to have sprung from the single
old diocese of Quebec.

The sixth successor of Laval was Briand, the last French Bishop of
Quebec under British domination. All those who succeeded him were
Canadian born. It was to him that M. Belmont addressed himself for final
counsel. He found the prelate alone in his study, calmly reading his
breviary, while a pile of documents, letters and other papers lay on a
table at his side. He wore a purple cassock, over which was a surplice
of snow-white lace reaching to the knees. On his shoulders was attached
a short violet cape. A pectoral cross hung from his neck by a massive
chain of gold. The tonsured white head was covered by a small skull-cap
of purple velvet. A large amethyst ring flashed on the second finger of
the left hand. Monseigneur sat there the picture of serene force. While
all around him was upro